The Book Of The Harp

With more enthusiasts than ever since its heyday, the Harp is an instrument which has successfully demonstrated its staying power and its important role both in music and beyond! John Marson’s Book of the Harp is a unique and definitive work distilled from a wealth of experience: a lifetime's study and research and an outstanding professional career. He traces the development of the harp from its earliest origins thousands of years B.C. to the invention of the pedal harp in the eighteenth century and the harps of the twenty first century. He examines the writings of many forgotten exponents of the harp, including inventors, players and composers, and provides a fully comprehensive view of every model, make and modification to the present day!

The Book of the Harp is a rich source of information, entertainment and anecdote on everything from strings, tuning, principles of fingering and tone production, historical influences, designs, techniques and methods, to the harp's literary associations and those with the theatre and cinema, its Celtic and religious symbolism, virtuoso players and its appearance in the poetry of Milton and novels of Jane Austen.

Both historical and practical, The Book of the Harp is an authoritative source of entertainment and a fascinating study for student, professional musician and interested reader alike. John Marson has enjoyed a glittering career during which he has been principal harpist of the London Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Professor of Harp at the Royal College of Music and soloist and freelance.